Current treatments of heart failure could use improvement.
An imbalance between left ventricle performance and myocardial oxygen coupling, which has been denoted mechanoenergetic uncoupling has been recognized as leading to cardiac insufficiency; conventional drugs for treatment of heart failure do not reverse this phenomenon. It has been shown that allopurinol and its metabolite oxypurinol may reverse this phenomenon.
It has not been previously appreciated that in disorders associated with oxidative stress, whereas allopurinol or oxypurinol may eliminate or reduce reactive oxygen species, they and compounds like them do not reduce an independent nitric oxide depletion effect, which, moreover, may be more than additive.